I rubbed the wrist he had gripped so tightly and let a resentful look cross my face.

“…I just had the thought that you might have meant it.”

“No. Don’t think that. And, well… yes, when you’re with child, you should only have good thoughts. So forget my slip of the tongue.”

“You make it sound so easy. Do I just forget because you tell me to?”

“Ha. Evie. I said I was sorry. Can’t you just let it go?”

The pot calling the kettle black. After only a couple of attempts at soothing me, Dertosse snapped. He stomped his foot in frustration. The absurdity of it made me scoff.

“Fine. Dertosse. If that’s what you say, then I suppose that’s what it is.”

“Right. Now you sound like Evie.”

“And what does that mean?”

“…Are you picking a fight with me?”

“Of course not.”

I’ll let this go for now, Dertosse. Because I need to bring you a despair and ruin far greater than what your mother suffered. To repay you for the life you stole from that foolish Evian who was nothing but used by you, and to repay the child who never got to be born, I waved my hand.

“Anyway, Dertosse.”

“What.”

“Why didn’t you come in last night? You came to me every single night before, so I found it strange that you didn’t yesterday.”

“Oh… w, well. A, a man has business to attend to, and sometimes he stays out overnight.”

“I see. You stayed late catching up on work?”

“That’s right. I couldn’t even leave the imperial palace. They work a marquis half to death.”

“That must have been hard.”

I put on a sympathetic expression and stepped closer to him.

“Of course it was. You wouldn’t know, staying here all the time. How grueling and exhausting it is out there.”

“I see. You really must have been at the imperial palace the whole time.”

“That’s what I said.”

“But your clothes are different. They’re not the same ones you were wearing when you left yesterday.”

“Oh, oh, that… I, I spilled something on them and changed.”

“Is that so? You spilled something and changed both top and bottom. At that rate, it must have been like falling into a river.”

I kept my face open and innocent, as though I knew nothing.

I let a guileless look show through, the way someone does when they’re asking out of pure curiosity.

“Anyway… clothes can be found anywhere.”

“But you know, Dert.”

“What now? Are you trying to be a nuisance? I’m tired.”

“All right. Then go. But you know, Dertosse. Why would a man who claims he was only at the imperial palace be wearing clothes from a ducal house?”

“Wh, wha, what are you talking about!”

Struck right at the mark, Dertosse shouted with genuine feeling. For a moment I felt like my ears had gone deaf.

“Why are you so startled?”

“B, because you’re saying something absurd!”

“I think it’s absurd too…”

I stepped up to him and lifted Dertosse’s arm. Then I ran my fingers along the buttons on his sleeve cuff. The gold buttons bore an unfamiliar crest.

“This here. It looks exactly like the crest of the Ilterich duchy. The same one that was on the carriage you arrived in last time.”

I had been willing to pretend not to notice, but I hadn’t expected him to take me for such a fool. At that, Dertosse’s face, which had been absently rubbing his own wrist, went white.

“Tell me. Don’t tell me you spent the night at the Ilterich duchy instead of the imperial palace?”

“Th, that can’t be!”

“But, but you see… I’ve heard that each family marks their belongings with their own crest. And especially the higher the noble, the more carefully they engrave their crest on even the smallest things. Which means…”

It was certain this was something from the Ilterich duchy. I simply watched Dertosse in silence, as though waiting for him to answer.

Dertosse, who was never good at lying, did nothing but dart his eyes around. For a long while. The only sounds in the room were the dry swallow in his throat and the restless tapping of his leg.

“Dertosse.”

“……”

“Don’t tell me you slept at the ducal house? The young lady said you and she were in love or some such thing, and don’t tell me that’s actually true?”

“Th, that’s impossible. M, my wife is Evian, you and you alone. This… this is, well. R, right. It’s, it’s a set of clothes from before that I never returned.”

“Is that so?”

“Y, yes. That’s right.”

“…Is this something I don’t need to worry about?”

I deliberately drew out the end of my words and pressed him. When a person is this flustered and cornered, they can only scramble to answer whatever the last thing said to them was. Without time to think properly.

“Of course! Why would a woman who stays home worry so much about what goes on outside. You don’t need to worry about it. Worry about the household instead.”

How long I had waited for those words.

“Right. I should only worry about the household.”

“Exactly.”

“So you’re leaving all household matters to me?”

“Yes. Right. So check everything thoroughly, without missing a thing. I’ll leave everything Mother was handling and everything concerning Mother to you as well. Take care of it yourself.”

To escape the situation, to hide his embarrassment, Dertosse handed me something far greater than I had expected. My face naturally broke into a smile.

“Thank you, Dertosse. It finally feels like you see me as your wife. I never imagined you’d hand over everything Mother was handling.”

“Wh, what???”

“All this time I kept wondering whether I was truly the marchioness, or just a marchioness in name only. But you’re giving it all to me… you really do think of me. You held back until now because you were worried I wouldn’t be able to handle it, didn’t you?”

“Th, that’s right. I would have handed it over even if you weren’t with child.”

I smiled pleasantly and took his hand firmly.

“As I thought… Dertosse. I was right to trust you.”

Even as I said the words, my stomach turned. Even so, I didn’t stop the act. Watching me be this foolish, I wonder what you must be thinking.

Just like in my past life, you’ll congratulate yourself on how well you’ve deceived me. Like a fool. Not even knowing what you’ve just done with a single careless sentence.

“Then Dertosse. Could you write me a document stating that you’re entrusting all matters of this family to me?”

“Do you need something like that?”

“Yes. Dertosse… you just got back so you probably don’t know, but there was quite a scene earlier… the handmaids.”

“What happened with the handmaids!”

“No… I don’t think it’s right, as their mistress, to point out each of their faults one by one.”

And yet I fidgeted with my fingers, as though I had plenty more to say. He thrashed about at my words like a freshly caught fish.

“What happened? Hm?”

“It’s nothing…”

“Tell me what it is. You can. I won’t blame you.”

“…Really, you won’t blame me?”

“Of course.”

I hesitated and mumbled for a long moment before slowly meeting his eyes.

“It’s just… I didn’t want to be looked down on by them anymore. They tripped me, ignored me, said terrible things I can’t even repeat… that I had no right to be here… that I was out here living well after getting the madam locked up… that I was a woman who used to beg on the streets…”

“Don’t tell me the handmaids actually said that?”

“I knew it… Dertosse doesn’t believe me either. It’s all right… this has always been my life, with no one believing me.”

In the past, I would have sulked at him for not listening to me.

And now I know. That man will only get annoyed no matter how much I sulk. The only feeling Dertosse, who is already lost in another woman, holds for me is guilt, not love or affection.

The more I amplify that guilt, the more he’ll move like a puppet at my will.

So I smiled sadly.

Only then, seeming to come to his senses, Dertosse shook his head vigorously and loudly denied what he had said.

“No. I believe you. I’m Evie’s husband. Of course I believe you. The handmaids said that?”

“…So… I was so angry that I told them all to leave. The things they said about begging… their words, the way they tried to hit me, it frightened me so much… and then they refused to leave… it turned into such a mess.”

I chose my words to give the feeling that I hadn’t wanted it to go that way, that the situation had simply unfolded on its own. That I was nothing but a victim. So that it would clearly come across as an innocent woman who had sent the handmaids away because of something she hadn’t expected.

“Honestly… Dertosse, I don’t even know myself. What I said when I drove them out. I… I really have no one but Dertosse… their words frightened me so much.”

Just then, something in my hesitant manner seemed to reach him, and he pulled me into his arms.

“It’s all right. It’s all right. It’s my fault for not doing anything for Evie from the very start.”

“But… you must be angry. The handmaids too… like Mother.”

“Evie. You are the mistress of this house. So it’s fine. If they did something wrong, it’s only natural for the mistress to drive them out.”

“No. When they find out you’re back, everyone will be in an uproar again. I’m sorry, for causing you trouble because of me.”

Dertosse stroked my hair slowly, the way one soothes a child. Every time his hand touched me, my skin crawled. I was going to have to scrub my hair thoroughly with soap tonight.

“Evie. Don’t worry. From now on, from this very moment, I’ll leave everything in the marquis’s estate to you.”

“Really…?”

“Yes. Whatever Evie has done, I won’t mind. So don’t worry too much. If they were punished by Evie, then they must have done something deserving of punishment.”

“…Thank you.”

“My sweet Evie must have been worrying so much. Don’t worry.”

I naturally pulled away from his arms and smiled at the same time.

“Thank you. Truly.”

“Then I’ll draw up the documents entrusting all family matters to Evie right away.”

“Really?”

When I showed a hint of disbelief, he took my hand gently. Then he began walking quickly.

“Since we’re on the subject, I’ll do it right now. Let’s go to the study.”

“Dert… you really…”

“It works out for me too. I’ll be able to focus on matters outside from now on.”

“You really are a good person.”

There was nothing left worth praising anymore.